Category: Golf

• English player wins at first playoff hole with birdie

• Fitzpatrick claims second PGA Tour victory of year

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick beat the world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, in a playoff to win the RBC Heritage for the second time.

Fitzpatrick took a three-shot into the final round at Hilton Head and still held that advantage standing on the 15th tee. But playing partner Scheffler produced birdies at 15 and 16 and Fitzpatrick’s duffed chip on 18 cost him a bogey, sending him into a playoff that he looked second favourite to win.

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• Scott O’Neil rejects claims LIV is close to collapse

• ‘Structural changes’ afoot, chief executive says

The LIV Golf chief executive, Scott O’Neil, has admitted the nascent golf league’s finances are “managed very tightly” and said structural changes are on the way that would probably mean they needed to raise money, but he remained adamant the league would not fold.

He was interviewed by LIV employees during the TV broadcast of the first round of the rebel tour’s Mexico City leg, a day after reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was to cut its funding for the league it helped launch in 2022.

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• Filing details remarks about drones over home

• Woods said he spoke to ‘the president’ after crash

• Prosecutors seek access to prescription records

Tiger Woods told police he had taken multiple prescription medications, including Vicodin, on the day of a crash that led to his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to court filings released on Wednesday.

The filing, submitted by prosecutors in Florida as part of routine pretrial discovery and obtained by the Guardian, also details a series of unusual remarks Woods made to officers at the scene of the 27 March crash in Hobe Sound, including references to drones flying over his home and a claim that he had spoken to “the president”.

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• LIV chief’s rallying email to staff did not refer to 2027

• Without alternative funding future is bleak for rebel tour

Several of golf’s leading names are facing career limbo at the end of 2026 amid expectation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will withdraw backing for the LIV Tour.

While the likelihood is Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm will be afforded a pathway back to the PGA Tour, the future for others who made lucrative switches to LIV is far more uncertain.

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The Grand National, Masters, Paris-Roubaix and Champions League put it ahead of even July’s mighty trifecta

The thought struck me on the last rattler back from the Grand National, as Avanti’s wifi faltered somewhere outside Crewe and the Masters stream on my phone froze yet again. I was watching the world’s best golf tournament, on a train journey back from the world’s greatest steeplechase, having seen the best football match of the season – Real Madrid against Bayern Munich – earlier in the week. Is there a better month in the sporting calendar than April?

Augusta always delivers. Club football hits peak levels of drama and jeopardy. Then there is Aintree, Paris-Roubaix, the start of the County Championship cricket season and the World Snooker Championship. To round it off, the life-affirming sight of the great and the ordinary doing remarkable things at the London Marathon. “April is the cruellest month,” writes TS Eliot in The Waste Land. But he was not a sporting man and was living in very different times.

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• Englishman led for a time in final round on back nine

• ‘These are the tournaments I focus on,’ says 45-year-old

Justin Rose refused to write off his major chances after another Masters near-miss. The 2013 US Open winner lost a playoff to Rory McIlroy at Augusta a year ago and held the lead on the back nine on Sunday before finishing in a tie for third, two shots behind the Northern Irishman who successfully defended his title.

It was Rose’s third top-six finish in his past eight major appearances and the 45-year-old, a winner on the PGA Tour in February, believes he can compete at the highest level. “In the last two years I’ve really re-kicked on and re-energised my career and myself and have a lot of belief there is a lot of runway ahead,” he said after shooting a final-round 70 having come undone at Amen Corner.

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• US president praises 36-year-old’s victory under pressure

• McIlroy held nerve to beat world No 1 Scheffler by a shot

Donald Trump called Rory McIlroy a “legend” as the United States president congratulated the Northern Irishman on his second Masters title.

McIlroy held on for a one-shot victory over America’s world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, becoming only the fourth player in the tournament’s 90-year history to win successive titles at Augusta.

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Rory McIlroy has warned the rest of elite golf he will set further, lofty goals in his sport after a successful defence of the Masters.

McIlroy prevailed at Augusta National by a shot over Scottie Scheffler, making the Northern Irishman just the fourth golfer in history to win the tournament back-to-back. While McIlroy will cherish his win, he has no plans to rest on his laurels.

'I’ve waited so long to win the Masters and all of a sudden I win two in a row. So I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to playing competitive golf but I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post winning this tournament.'

• Rory McIlroy targets even loftier goals after winning back-to-back Masters titles

• Rory McIlroy holds nerve to be the Master again as rivals succumb to tension

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️ Rory McIlroy became just the fourth player in history to win consecutive Green Jackets
️ Official Leader Board

Marco Penge was making a good fist of his Masters debut. Especially as the 27-year-old from Crawley, the reigning Spanish Open champion, took a triple-bogey eight at the 2nd on Thursday. Not the most auspicious start to his Augusta National career, but he limited the first-round damage to 76, then shot 69 and 71. Sadly his final round isn’t going so well, and he’s just dumped two balls in the water at the iconic par-three 12th, the first spinning back off the bank, the second from the dropzone not even getting over to dry land before dunking into the drink. A quadruple-bogey seven. He isn’t the first, he won’t be the last, and things could have gotten a whole lot worse, just ask the Towering Inferno …

Bogey at the last for Jon Rahm. A diminuendo end to a fine round of 68. You have to wonder how much buyer’s remorse Rahmbo has for joining the LIV tour: the 2021 US Open champion and 2023 Masters winner has never been the same player since. Still, his recovery this week from an opening round of 78 will give him a little succour. He ends his week at +1, one shy of the current clubhouse leader Gary Woodland.

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Cameron Young shot 65 to wipe out Rory McIlroy’s big lead on Moving Day at Augusta National. Scott Murray was watching

Max Homa led at this stage two years ago, ending the week in third spot after falling away over the weekend with a pair of 73s. Undaunted, he came back last year, and tied for 12th. The 35-year-old Californian has fallen in love with Augusta National late in life, and he’s going well again this week. Birdies at 1 and 2 have whisked him up the standings to -4.

While we’re waiting for the leading players to take to the course, we’ve got time to indulge in a wee spot of Masters nostalgia. This episode of This Golfing Life, a wonderful new golf podcast hosted by the award-winning journalist and author Dan Davies, dives deep into the career of the 1980 and 1983 champion, the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and comes much recommended. (Fans of Paddington and Maurice Flitcroft may enjoy this episode too.) Get on it!

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️ Latest news from the second round at Augusta National
️ Official leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott

Wyndham Clark’s birdie putt at 6 looks good. A straight roll. But it drifts a little to the right just before reaching the cup, enough to kink out. That really did look like it was going in. So he remains at -3 for both his round and the Tournament overall. He’s no longer the only player out there in red for his round today: Im Sungjae, who finished second on debut in the November Masters of 2020, birdies 7 and 8 to move into credit today – he’s +3 overall – while the old trooper Freddie Couples birdies 2 to get back to +5. Such a shame about that hideous run at 15, 16 and 17 yesterday - quadruple bogey, double bogey, double bogey – but you can forgive a 66-year-old for running out of gas under the heat of the late-afternoon sun.

The Par 3 Contest winner Aaron Rai starts his second round calmly and confidently. Tea Olive found in regulation, and a long birdie putt that shaves the hole. He remains at -1 after yesterday’s 71, a round that promised more after going out in 33. Meanwhile Wyndham Clark’s run of consecutive birdies comes to an end at 5. Just a par, though he’s now landed his tee shot at 6 into the heart of the green, using the slope to bring his ball towards the flag tucked away front left. He’ll have a good look at birdie from 18 feet, a putt not exactly flat and straight, but as flat and straight as they come around here.

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️ Latest news from the first round at Augusta National
️ Official Leader Board | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Scott

While we’re on the subject of blowouts, spare a thought for poor Carlos Ortiz. The 34-year-old Mexican is making just his second start at the Masters, and his first since 2021. A tie for fourth at last year’s US Open at Oakmont shows the man has proper major-championship game, but Augusta National is capable of besting any man, and Ortiz has suffered a nightmare start. A drive into the creek down the left of 2. A fluffed splash out of a fairway bunker at 5. He’s started 5-7-5-4-6, a run of three bogeys and two doubles. At +7 through 5, he’ll already be wishing he was back in the clubhouse, and a par at 6 to snap that disastrous run won’t do much to help his mood.

It’s also the 30th anniversary of this. Oh Greg.

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• Australian golfer saddened by his ‘hero’ facing struggle with addiction

• Five-time Masters champion to miss first major after car crash and arrest

Australian ace Jason Day has expressed sadness at Tiger Woods’ plight but taken issue with the golf great’s “selfish” judgement for driving under the influence.

Woods has reportedly checked himself into rehab in Switzerland after being arrested and charged on 27 March after crashing his car near his home on Jupiter Island in Florida.

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